1. Field of the Invention
The present invention generally relates to an electrical connector, and particularly to an electrical card edge connector for connecting a daughter board, such as a card memory module, to a mother board.
2. Description of Prior Arts
Memory modules that comprise memory chips mounted on a daughter board are often connected to a mother board of an electronic device, such as a personal computer, by means of a card edge connector, for example, a memory socket connector. The card edge connector provides electrical connection between the daughter board and the mother board. An example of the memory socket is the so-called SO DIMM connector which allows the daughter board to be mounted to the mother board in such a way that the daughter board and the mother board are substantially parallel to each other. As known to the skilled person in the art, the card edge connector is mounted on the mother board through Surface-mount Technology. Before soldering the contacts to the surface of the mother board, metal springs are often employed to be assembled to the side arms of the connector. The metal springs share pressures exerted on the contacts to thereby protect the contacts from deformation/distortion. U.S. Pat. Nos. 6,464,514, 6,419,513, 6,030,245, 6,162,069, and 5,997,330 disclose such type card edge connectors. However,the metal springs described in the above-mentioned patents are all integrally formed with an ejector which complexes the manufacture of the connector. On the other hand, the structure of the conventional metal springs is easily subject to a deformation when used in a heightened card edge connector by way of increasing the whole height thereof directly.
Hence, it is desirable and more cost effective to have an improved metal spring to be employed in a heightened card edge connector.
Accordingly, it is an object of the present invention to provide a high-rise card edge connector with metal springs that increase the stability of assembling the connector on a mother board.
It is another object of the present invention to provide a high-rise card edge connector with metal springs that facilitate the soldering of the contacts on a mother board.
In order to achieve the above-mentioned objects, a card edge connector in accordance with the present invention, which is adapted for electrically interconnecting a daughter board to a mother board, includes an insulating housing defining a central slot for receiving an edge of the daughter board, a plurality of contacts retained in the housing, a pair of side arms integrally extending from opposite ends of the housing, and a pair of metal springs attached on corresponding side arms. Each side arm has an inner surface forming a platform for supporting the daughter board, each platform defining thereon a reversed L-shaped, retention slit. Each metal spring has a retention member retained in corresponding retention slit and a resilient, board-mounted member for soldering on the mother board. The resilient, board-mounted member has substantial resilience which can be deformable when soldering the contacts on the mother board to thereby facilitate the whole stability of the assembly of the card edge connector on the mother board.